I’ve emerged from the fog, like Claire Trevor in the San Francisco set ending of Anthony Mann’s tremendous Raw Deal. (Hopefully to better results.)
Before I bring up my intrusive thoughts about if the world needs another Substack or recommendations list, I felt a pressing need to tell you to watch two fairly underseen films that expire from Criterion at the end of this month: No Time for Love (1943, Mitchell Leisen) and Falling in Love (1984, Ulu Grosbard).
No Time for Love is a crucial work in the himbo cinematic canon. In the fourth of seven films starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, he plays a construction worker and she plays a lady reporter who spends most of the runtime fighting her attraction to this hunk. He spends most of the film shirtless. The two stars’ chemistry is at its peak and queer director Mitchell Leisen’s male objectification needs to be seen.
The other film I recommend, Falling in Love, comes with a potentially controversial description. This subtle New York romance is one of the best of dozens of great Robert De Niro performace, and one of only a few good Meryl Streep performances. (Come for me in replies, go ahead. But only if you watch Falling in Love first.)
As far as Substack, are you overwhelmed with newsletters? Do you want another or should I refund yearly subsciptions and evade being perceived? I’m personally enjoying the substack from Marlowe Granados, who is thankfully never too contemporary. Kaitlin Phillips posts so much it’s as if 2013 Twitter were a blogspot (complimentary). I love the food-centric writing from Colleen Kelsey, Veronica Fitzpatrick, and Simran Hans, but I would read anything by these women and am always hungry for more. I was honored to contribute to “12 Writers on 12 Meals in 12 Different Movies” in Ellisa Suh’s Moviepudding. I’m also learning from watching Miranda July work out what Substack is and does through each of her posts and especially in her community chat.
I initially wanted to be a human algorithm and help you sort through “content” to find things worth watching. But I can’t recommend things you’ll like without knowing you and what you’ve seen. What I can do is share with you things I find interesting. And, like the substacks I enjoy, hopefully take you out of link dumps and maybe temporarily out of time.