So — Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming directs and stars in this movie… and it starts with ten minutes of them being all athletic and stuff. It’s a bit… er… it’s a choice?

This is pretty odd — it’s like one of those … psychological drama thingies? Think Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf via 70s Cassavetes (no Altman)… but… in 2001? It’s a movie out of time.

OK, I’m getting into it now. Jennifer Jason Leigh is brilliant here.

OK, this bit is kinda embarrassing. I mean, it’s meant to be, but it’s still a bit… you know.

And then they all dropped acid! I mean, Ecstasy, but they’re kinda behaving like they dropped acid.

So I guess there’s gonna be some tragedy, too? You can’t have people doing drugs without people dying, I think.

It’s a frustrating movie. There’s brilliant scenes in here, and then there’s… the Too Much Drama scenes. I mean, the scenes themselves aren’t particularly predictable or anything, but they happen when you’d predict they would.

The Anniversary Party. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming. 2001. ⚃

This is pretty good. It’s got good lines and actors and stuff. The cinematography is really basic, though. It’s just over shoulder/over shoulder/over shoulder/over shoulder.

And then it turned, like, super serious…

What a downer.

This is like a … manic pixie girl movie, but for once the tragic manic girl is the main character. I guess that’s progress and stuff, but it’s not cute.

OK, but that bit doesn’t last forever. It just seems like it did.

Four fifths of this is really good, but that part where all the drama is: It’s kinda bad.

Milkwater. Morgan Ingari. 2020. ⚃

Man, the cast of this movie… I surmise that it was a total flop when it was released, but they sure did pick some interesting actors.

But I can understand why — it seems really out of step with 1985. It’s more like a 70s movie? It’s all earnest and stuff. I’m guessing the director is a Robert Altman fan?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Altman’s great.

On the other hand, it’s got Hill Street Blues energy.

It’s got a mood kinda in the middle of Hill Street Blues and Twin Peaks? Which is very of its time, I guess.

I don’t think you can bomb worse than that, so I guess the studio didn’t really release it? Just pushed it to a couple of theatres on Long Island?

And it’s so weird — this is almost an amazing movie. It’s so close — the performances are great, the sets are fantastic, and the mood really works. But it’s so … weird. It’s kinda formless? Which I like… not knowing where anything is going or what the movie is even about… but you have to have faith that this is going to cohere somehow, and the movie hasn’t really earned that trust.

There’s so many interesting things in this movie that I want to watch all of Alan Rudolph’s movies.

This veers between something as scintillating as Liquid Sky and… something not like Liquid Sky.

It’s simply Divine!

I could see me giving this ⚀ or ⚅ depending on the day. It’s unique.

It’s like Robert Altman x Twin Peaks. But before Twin Peaks.

OK, now I want to see all of Rudolph’s movies.

At random, I’m giving this movie:

Trouble in Mind. Alan Rudolph. 1985. ⚅