Recent Viewings, Part 2

[indianasmith]

^that looks awesome https://youtu.be/wo87F-va410?si=-BKbuYuqppsQxe8X


"Get in the pool, Ben can't swim!" Okay, we might be crossing a line here.

He can swim, but one symptom of rabies is a fear of water.  That was what kept him out of the pool.

[Rev. Powell]

HEADS OR TAILS? (2025): An Italian cowboy and the wife of a brutal army captain flee into the wilderness after an incident during bronco-riding contest between Italians and Buffalo Bill's traveling wild west show, and the captain's father hires Buffalo Bill himself (played by John C. Reilly) to track down the refugees. The Buffalo Bill angle is almost an afterthought, and the "surreal" third act twist is overstated; this is really a rather average Spaghetti Western retread with modest art-house aspirations. 2.5/5.

[M.10rda]

CONEY ISLAND (1917):
Two years after the essentially similar FATTY & MABEL/SAN DIEGO EXHIBITION short, w/d/s Roscoe Arbuckle has clearly figured out some new tricks. The plot is again meaningless and merely an excuse to visit a scenic location and clown around/chase girls/get in trouble, but the clowning and the trouble are far more inventive and interesting, at least in the second half or so when things have finally developed a full head of steam. Arbuckle and Buster Keaton individually and jointly pursue, hook up with, and then lose a couple dames, and in the process wreak a lot of havoc involving stunts of impressive agility. The "impressive agility" is especially true on Roscoe's part, as he is, inescapably, a big dude and yet does backflips and pratfalls and nimble dances. So does Buster, but Buster is a skinny guy - yet (as with most other Arbuckle/Keaton movies) the Letterboxd reviews are almost unanimously biased towards "Buster is a genius and Fatty is a talentless idiot". I dunno - I'm not as rotund as Roscoe and I sure can't do the moves he does, and even if you're as physically fit as Buster, I bet you can't do Roscoe's moves, either.

More to that point, CONEY ISLAND culminates in a jail cell with Roscoe whackin' one cop (over the head) after another - until the cell is full of a literal pile of unconscious (or dead) cop bodies. Keaton made his own short COPS five years later and it too is pretty impressive - but it doesn't treat the viewer to a four-to-five foot high pile of cop bodies. Advantage: Arbuckle.    3.5/5