Movies, Movies, Movies
Frank Perry’s Rancho Deluxe (1975) is the most bar-worthy movie I’ve ever seen, as in it would be a great movie to play at a bar, sound off, not because it doesn’t have a lot of dialogue, or that it’s all can-can dancing or something, but that its setting and stars are not demanding, instead a simple reminder of other things, other bars.
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (Jill Sprecher, 2001) tricks you into thinking it will take itself too seriously, with these title cards that are just familiar aphorisms, but those work in two ways: echoing a sentiment expressed by a character and underlining the phrase’s own shortcomings.
Mitchell Leisen’s Easy Living was released in 1937, but in its opening scene, a receipt shows us that a particular coat costs $58,000. It’s about a woman who gets to stay in the best hotel suite I’ve ever seen for free because of her influence (she’s in the tabloids), and who, when she comes into a tiny amount of money buys two huge dogs.