Land & Sea

Toronto exhibit. Photo from theguardian.com:

Friday night’s movie fix, courtesy of Netflix by mail, was a standard tale of western revenge elevated by one aspect. The Old Way (2023) stars Nicolas Cage as an ex-gunslinger reformed by a loving wife. She is murdered and he sets out, accompanied by his pre-teen daughter, to bring her killers to frontier justice. Ryan Kiera Armstrong is stunning as the girl, underplaying like a seasoned pro, the film’s biggest plus. 13, she had already amassed 17 credits before her appearance, including six episodes of American Horror Story and 16 of Anne with an E. I didn’t recognize Clint Howard as the geezer among the villains. He is outstanding. Noah Le Gros is fine as the chief antagonist. His career is just beginning, ten credits. I also enjoyed Nick Searcy as the blunt Marshal. His canon is stellar, 138 titles under his name, including 78 episodes of Justified. Brett Donowho directed. I am unfamiliar with his other eight works. Carl W. Lucas wrote the screenplay, his third. He also has 13 credits as a producer, and his first directorial effort is in post-production. 6000+ users at IMDb have rated The Old Way, forging to a consensus of 5.5 on a scale of ten. Released only in Europe, it has returned only $59,000+, which wouldn’t even begin to cover Cage’s salary. I wonder if the backers anticipated disaster but wished to avoid a straight-to-video release. Anyone squeamish about violence and a bleak storyline should pass. Running time is 95 minutes. Here are the leads in character, photo from Google Images:

The Quid Pro Joe follies continue to entertain. Can’t wait to hear how the mainstream media spins this. Headline from nypost.com: “Joe Biden’s email aliases reveal truth behind aw-shucks facade.” Maybe he’s Batman.

Creative politics, from NYP: “Texas Land Official: Biden Using Mussels Ploy to Undo Floating Border Barrier.” Pity the poor crustacean.

Are you kidding me? Headline from foxnews.com: “Florida officials report five deaths from ‘flesh-eating’ bacteria in Tampa Bay since January.” Count on climate change being cited as the cause.

The floating book shop scored the parking spot it wanted on this gorgeous day, but it didn’t lead to big bucks. My thanks to the lovely young mom who overcompensated me for two large kids’ books, and to the guy who bought Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) on DVD; and to Bill Brown, author of Words and Guitar: A History of Lou Reed’s Music and other fine books, who purchased The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho.

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