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Film: Tender Mercies

Why are there so many great films and writers out of Texas and Oklahoma? No Country/Cormac, all Larry McMurtry films and novels, Horton Foote, Tracey Letts, Terrence Malick? Is it something about the landscape? The food? The public schools?

What to say about the film? Well, it's a family melodrama that's really one of the better movies about being an artist. I loved the writing - incredibly direct and a great contrast to the other film I just watched --

Film: Molly's Game

A few good scenes but ultimately felt like a long voice over with a movie playing in the background.

Film: The Sound of Music

The thought crossed my mind while watching this: we enjoy movies because they were made by human beings not so different from ourselves. Would it be interesting to watch a basketball game played by aliens or androids? I think not. The other thought that crossed my mind: this film puts to shame the films currently produced by the Hollywood studios. And a third thought while watching this amongst a packed house at the Hollywood Bowl sing-a-long: if somewhere in LA played Easy Rider on a Saturday night, how many folks would attend? 20-30? Whereas Sound of Music gets thousands. Recall, Easy Rider was made in '67 and supposed to be a marker of "New Hollywood," etc. Sound of Music is 1965. So what, in the end, holds up? When I was 25, was probably (sadly) more impressed by Easy Rider. But these films - pardon my QT reference - aren't even the same sport. 

One last thought: I think the country and people that were able to make this film still exists, just the Hollywood that made this film does not.