Television-wise, the only show I actually completed was the latest season of Reacher. I have been watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, The West Wing, and The Critic, but lately, my viewing is pretty much down across the board.
What I’ve Caught Up With, April 2025
Film: The Wiz (1978)
An urban reimagining of The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz keeps most of the story, albeit with changes and rewrites all of the songs to something completely new. It also seems to move a great deal more quickly than the original film. There’s plenty of Motown cred in this, with Diana Ross in the role of Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, plus Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man and Ted Ross as the lion. But this is directed by Sidney Lumet and a reworking of the original Broadway libretto by Joel Goddam Schumacher. The songs are good, but Diana Ross spends the entire movie talking like a 7-year-old girl, and her constant vocalizing becomes old quickly. Still, kids would get a huge kick out of this, and seeing both Lena Horne (as Glinda) and Richard Pryor (as The Wiz) is always worthwhile.
Film: Carlito’s Way (1993)
Puerto Rican criminal Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) is released from prison after five years of a 35-year stint due to a technicality exploited by his lawyer Dave (an afroed Sean Penn). Carlito wants to go straight and has a dream of joining a friend in a car rental business in the Bahamas, but he needs $75,000 to get there. Of course, he is quickly pulled back into the crime world, both by his past associations and Dave the lawyer. He also hooks back up with his old girlfriend Gail (Penelope Ann Miller). It’s obvious where this is going, but it’s a ride worth taking. The cast, which also includes Luis Guzman, James Rebhorn, Viggo Mortensen, and John Leguizamo is top-notch. It also helps that it’s right in the wheelhouse of Brian De Palma.
Film: The Shootist (1976)
The knock against John Wayne was that in all of his movies, he basically played John Wayne and never really acted. Anyone who has said this has never seen The Shootist, which is The Duke’s last film. An aged gunslinger named J.B. Books (Wayne) learns that he has cancer and only a few months to live. His death will be ugly and painful, so he chooses to try to go out fighting rather than dying in bed. It’s a hell of a send off for the man, and the accompanying cast—Lauren Bacall has his widowed landlady, Ron Howard as her son, plus James Stewart, Harry Morgan, Scatman Crothers, John Carradine, and more—is one for the ages. You never expect to see John Wayne vulnerable until he’s there on screen, laden with pathos.
Film: The Central Park Five (2012)
As many of us now live in a country where it seems like basic human rights like due process are no longer guaranteed, it’s important to remember that the system has always been biased, and has always worked exactly the way that it was designed to work. Despite their innocence, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise were convicted of a brutal rape that occurred in Central Park in 1989. This seems like it could be one part of a Ken Burns documentary about the American justice system (and it is a Ken Burns film) rather than a stand-alone documentary, but it would be difficult to sit through another 10 hours of cases like this one where the actual crime was not assault, but skin color.
Film: Sweetie (1989)
Mental illness isn’t that easy to portray in a way that isn’t unpleasant on screen, and Sweetie is plenty unpleasant in a lot of ways. Kay (Karen Colston) has a dysfunctional family controlled in many ways by her sister Dawn (Genevieve Lemon), nicknamed Sweetie. Kay wants a normal life despite her own dysfunctional relationship with Louis (Tom Lycos), but when Sweetie shows back up, everything goes to hell. There’s certainly some comedy to this, but it’s not the sort that you actually laugh at. Sweetie is an unpleasant character, and that’s the point—she controls the family, but never for anything good. It’s not a film I’ll watch again, but it’s a unique vision.
