From: arthur@alum.calberkeley.org   
      
   On 1/4/2026 7:25 AM, The True Melissa wrote:   
   > Verily, in article , did weberm@polaris.net   
   > deliver unto us this message:   
   >>   
   >> The day mom died, I watched:   
   >   
      
   I'm sorry for your loss.   
      
   > I'm sorry to hear about your mom. How are you doing?   
   >   
   >   
   >> What did you watch?   
   >   
   > I watched reruns of The Critic, on Tubi. The show isn't very good, but   
   > it has a frustrating quality of *almost* being good. It'll set up some   
   > reasonable character situation, then do a corny, predictable joke which   
   > knocks me out of both the story and the comedy. If only the comedy were   
   > funnier, it might have run for years.   
   >   
      
   It was occasionally good.  I liked the one with the Siskel and Ebert cameos.   
      
   > In that it reminds me of Whoopie, Whoopie Goldberg's sitcom vehicle. It   
   > was interesting in many ways, but it just wasn't very funny, and that's   
   > a death knell for a comedy.   
   >   
      
   Oddly enough, I don't think a comedy has to be funny if you like the   
   characters and situation.  It just sort of becomes a drama.   
      
      
      
   I watched   
      
   Requiem for a Dream (4K disc) 2000 movie directed by Darren Aronofsky.   
   The movie follows several characters played by Jared Leo, Ellen Burstyn,   
   Marlon Wayans, and Jennifer Connelly as their lives slowly unravel due   
   to drug abuse.  In Burstyn's case she wasn't even aware she was addicted   
   to anything.  The movie holds up very well.  Whenever I see lists of   
   movies that people can't watch more than once I see this at the top of   
   the list.  But I've never had an issue with rewatching this movie.  This   
   was background noise with a director's commentary.   
      
      
   The Fountain (blu-ray) 2006 movie written and directed by Darren   
   Aronofsky.  The movie follows Hugh Jackman and Raschel Weisz as they   
   play multiple characters through multiple time periods.  In all of the   
   time periods Jackman is in love with Weisz.  Ellen Burstyn is also in   
   the movie.  I've always really liked this movie.  It's a shame it   
   flopped at the box office.  I just wish the movie had a new print.  And   
   a commentary track would have been nice too.   
      
      
   Mother! (4K disc) 2017 movie written and directed by Darren Aronofsky.   
   This is a very surreal movie, and the plot is hard to explain. But   
   basically, Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem play a married couple   
   renovating a house. One day a man (Ed Harris) shows up claiming he   
   thought their house was a board and breakfast.  Over Lawrence's   
   objections Bardem lets the man spend the night.  Then the man's wife   
   (Michelle Pfeiffer) shows up.  And then their children show up.  More   
   and more people keep arriving with the situation spiraling completely   
   out of control.  This is one of those love it or hate it movies.  This   
   is another one that could really use a commentary.   
      
      
   Children of Men (blu-ray) 2006 movie written and directed by Alfonso   
   Cuarón.  The movie is set in a dystopian future where women can no   
   longer get pregnant and Britain has become a fascist police state that   
   persecutes immigrants.  Clive Owen stars as a man who is recruited by   
   his ex (Julianne Moore) to help a group of resistance fighters transport   
   the first woman to get pregnant in 18 years, to safety.  The movie holds   
   up very well.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)