Thursday, March 13, 2014

Two New York movies about actors

"A wiseguy is always right.  Even when he's wrong, he's right"--Donnie Brasco

Last night I went to Murray Pomerance's Film 101 series at the Event Screen and saw Mike Newell's Donnie Brasco for the third or fourth time. (I once saw the whole thing on DVD with Newell's voiceover commentary.) It's the one where undercover G-man Johnny Depp gets taken under the wing of Willy Loman-like gangster Al Pacino.  I love a good gangster movie, and this one's particularly good.  There was a loud quarrel in the audience at one point, but I never found out what that was about.

This evening I saw Sydney Pollack's Tootsie (for the third time) at the Yonge & Eglinton with a Movie Meetup group.  I thought of cancelling, what with the snowstorm, but our internet connection was off so I went anyway.  This is the one where Dustin Hoffman plays an obsessive actor who pretends to be an actress to land a soap opera role.  It's a slick blockbuster vehicle, though its message doesn't bear too much thinking. (Does it take a man in drag to teach a woman to be assertive?) Bill Murray has a good supporting role.

After seeing Tootsie I joined Paula's Karaoke Meetup group at the Fox & Fiddle near St. George station.  One of my songs was "With a Little Help From My Friends":  I was expecting the Ringo Starr version but got the Joe Cocker version instead!

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