JACK's GONE FISHIN'

One day when I was really young. I was afraid to learn how to swim. Hell, I was afraid of the water. It was a bright, breezy summer day and I was wrist deep in a cooler gripping an ice cold Hansen’s Mandarain Lime Soda when my mother lay into me like a salesman; telling…

MARCH 2025 – BONG JOON HO “What type of detective sleeps well?” (Memories of Murder (2003) At first when I started this series, my goal was to do a deep dive into movie genres/subgenres/actors/directors and any other movie elements that were interesting to me and that I wanted to investigate and write about. As I…

MONTHLY FILM SERIES: BLACKSPLOITATION   FEBRUARY 2025     This month I jumped into Blacksploitation. Blacksploitation is a film movement from the 1960s and 1970s that attempts to capture the urban black experience in America and how they connect to drugs, sex, crime, poverty, and sticking it to ‘the man.’ These films started out as independent…

MONTHLY FILM SERIES: BILLY WILDER  JANUARY 2025 Billy Wilder month is finally at a close. This month was a little abnormal because I started a bit early in December with The Apartment (1960), Sabrina (1954) and Double Indemnity (1944). I was anticipating being a bit too busy in January to watch very many films and I was right; but somehow…

MONTHLY FILM SERIES: Spike Lee DECEMBER 2024 I’m ending this month a bit early for the holiday season; also so I can focus on watching Christmas movies.  Spike Lee has been such an interesting director to focus on for a month. I don’t really know if I learned much more about him than I already…

Monthly Film Series: 1970’s Science Fiction Originally when I think of Science Fiction from the 1970s I think of early(ish) films of the genre; building blocks of where we are today. I think of contemporaries citing many of these films as influential and foundational and that’s why I decided to tackle this one this month.…

Monthly Film Series: Horrorothon 2024 My goal with these themed posts is to get me more engaged with writing about movies in a more in-depth way than just word vomiting onto Letterboxd. I want to learn more about all elements of movies and film as a whole and I think a good way to do…

Foreign Correspondent (1940) Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ***SPOILER ALERT*** I was excited to see Foreign Correspondent (1940) because it was starting to be interesting to see how Hitchcock progressed in his film style and ability; also my grandfather was a foreign correspondent in Korea so I was interested to see what the film was about. This movie is most interesting…

Sabotage (1936) Rating: ⭐⭐1/2 ***SPOILER ALERT*** Even the movies towards the bottom of the Hitchcock rankings are good films. This one is filled with trademark Hitchcock suspense and intrigue. It’s about a Scotland Yard agent who starts a relationship with a woman and her son at first in order to get closer to the girl’s father…

The 39 Steps (1935) Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2  ***SPOILER ALERT*** This strikes me as the first great Hitchcock picture. With The 39 Steps (1935), he began to dial into what interested him and what was the basis for nearly every story he would tell in the future; the theme of suspense. I am paraphrasing here (or just making this…