* “The League of Gentlemen” gets even more twisted (if this is possible) in series 3. I mentioned this elsewhere, but I know a number of people watched -only- the final episode of series 3 because it had Christopher Eccleston in a small role. I cannot even imagine coming into this show at the end like that. But at least this way they avoided the truly scarring sex at the beginning of the season. Oh my giddy aunt.

* On the other end of the BBC spectrum we have “Jeeves & Wooster“, series 2. Terrifically entertaining, of course.

* And I don’t think I ever posted here that I took another trip through “Wonderfalls“. Third time, I think. So good. There must be a way to balance quality writing & production with a decent business model, right? Well, a girl can dream.

I had gotten terribly behind on my Netflix movies. I like to have a pretty solid turn-around, and there was a title here I’d had out for two weeks. Oh boy.

* I’d wanted to see In America for some time, since a friend whose taste in film I respect speaks about it in the same way I describe The Hanging Garden. It was worth the wait. Utterly gorgeous film about an Irish family in New York in the 80s, and the whole cast, including the young girls, was awesome. (Though for those who look for this sort of thing, it’s pretty hard to avoid reading the character of Mateo as a magical negro.)

* The Chumscrubber opens with Jamie Bell (with excellent American accent) discovering the body of his friend, who has committed suicide. He leaves the house without telling anyone, and thus begins a surreal portrait of grief, disconnection, and suburban America, with a total who’s-who cast. Pretty cool, but since Lou Pucci appears in it, I feel obligated to tell you that Thumbsucker is better.

* Sympathy for Mr Vengeance was a slick & stylish revenge movie. It’s the first in a trilogy. I have the next one, Oldboy near the top of my queue, and the third one is in the theatre here now.

If you just see one see … In America.

I have this whole text file with my last few weeks of movies (and months of books). Perhaps work-only internet access was not the best idea after all.

* I finally ordered The Hanging Garden because it was inconceivable that I could live any longer without it. It’s an intensely personal movie for me, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has seen it, and it was just as powerful as I had remembered.

* I watched The Apartment on the 100th anniversary of Billy Wilder’s birthday, and I thought that was an event of note. I own two other Wilder films, but I’d had The Apartment on the brain lately. It’s just fantastic, but it’s Wilder, so what do you expect?

* Finally, it was apparently a terrible flaw in my upbringing that I had never seen Labyrinth, a flaw that was finally corrected last month. I admit, I had been nervous to see it. It’s one of those movies that, if you admit that you’ve never seen it, everyone looks at you as if you have three heads. (I look at people that way when I learn they’ve never seen The Godfather, but to each their own.) Plus, it often popped up in conversation with The Goonies, which I had also never seen, but when I finally attempted it earlier this year I just could not do it. Thankfully, Labyrinth was -not- one of those movies that you had to see as a child to enjoy.

If you just see one see … The Hanging Garden.