OK Go!

We Had It All... Just Like Bogart & Bacall

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was feeling kind of sick (better today) and lazy and watching some great TV on DVD (Will & Grace, Sex in the City, Seinfeld dubbed in French, and Star Trek Next Generation). Went shopping with Bart.

Ever see a major classic and discover it's very different that what you imagined? I always thought "Key Largo" was this major romantic picture, probably because of the shlocky 1980 pop hit by Bertie Higgins.. "We had it all / Just Like Bogart & Bacall." It's actually a psychological crime thriller about a family-owned remote hotel terorrized by gangsters during hurricane season. It wrestles with some very dark emotions, including cowardice, emotional dependency, and alcoholism. It's very forward-thinking in its depiction of racial prejudice against Florida's Native Americans. It's a really wonderful movie with some fabulous performances by the non-leads, particularly Lionel Barrymore as the wheelchair-bound hotelkeeper, Edward G Robinson as the gangster, and Claire Trevor in an Oscar-winning bit as the gangster's alcoholic washed-up-songstress girlfriend.. A must-see.

Today I'm seeing the movie "Closer," a Mike Nichols-directed study of two couples' complex and twisted relationships, with echoes of his brilliant 'Virigina Wolff' from 1966, this time with Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Julia Roberts... I'm seeing it with Christi, and having lunch first.