Just when I think I have seen all the films that could possibly leave me vulnerable, I find this under-rated and powerful DVD. I watched this on Showtime and it left me in that "wow" fog a good movie can leave behind.

If you start watching AMERICAN GUN and are tempted to stop because Virginia Madsen apparently leaves the storyline early, don't! Not only is her character crucial to the overall plot, James Coburn knocks you out cold with his caring, but angry-at-the-world-and-himself portrayal of a father who loses a family member to a fatal gunshot.

I hesitate to describe too much of the plot since there are unexpected turns and twists that shouldn't be revealed, but I can elaborate on the style and lovely quietness of AMERICAN GUN. Maybe "quiet" isn't the whole truth since various gunshots explode throughout the movie as James Coburn explores the history of one gun that has traveled through many different hands. The loudness is also there when he looks back at his own experiences with ammunition in war.

AMERICAN GUN hit me so hard because it is an emotional film more than anything else. At first it seems to be about how a husband and wife each handle grief differently or how one man is determined to find his daughter's killer. In a way, that could sum it up, but there's also a lot about closure and what we think we see versus what is actually there.

The reason this indie deserves more acclaim is because it takes you places you don't expect to go and you are able to experience that great mental process called "thinking." Watch this by yourself--or better yet, rent it with a group of friends who truly enjoy discussing (but not talking to death) a great work of art.

On a side note: The whole cast is just spectacular (a small role by Alexandra Holden will get you a bit teary-eyed), but Coburn and Madsen shine.

  

Tonight's "Medium," an episode called "Psych" (which pretty much gives away the ending, if you ask me), was not one of its betters ones...or at least that's how I felt. But aside from the plot holes you could drive a truck through, I found one particular part, a cat death scene, especially unnecessary and garish. It echoed a scene from an earlier episode this year in which a dog died in an equally gruesome manner.

Lately (as it did way back in the first season before it found its footing) "Medium" often seems to be going for shock value instead of something integral to the plot...both the dog and cat killings were just nasty weird, like a puppet show gone horribly wrong...I always find "Medium" at its best when it goes for sweet (but not sugary) and quirky with a real, gripping mystery to sink our teeth into...take "Dear Dad," for example. While that dealt with sensitive material (i.e. date rape) it handled it in a thoughtful manner.

 

I've always wanted to see "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone". According to TCM's website the movie's airing next week on their cable channel. Yay!

Meanwhile here's what one reviewer has to say about the film:

Vivien Leigh, so stirringly memorable as Blanche in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, stars in this 1961 adaptation of Williams's only novella, giving a nuanced, slightly neurotic performance that is haunting and all the more tragic by its being one of the actress's last performances before her sad death at age 53. Leigh plays Karen Stone, a 50-ish theater actress whose comeback vehicle never gets off the ground; en route to Rome for a brief escape, she's devastated by the sudden death of her beloved husband. She decides to stay in Rome, and there, her loneliness takes root against the spectacular backdrop of the city. Lotte Lenya plays a viperous contessa who pimps young men to older rich ladies, and introduces the handsome Paolo (played with dissolute perfection--though his Italian accent is shaky--by Warren Beatty) to Mrs. Stone. Leigh's performance is unnervingly raw, though one wonders why a woman with a long, happy marriage and at least one very real friend (played by Coral Browne) should be doomed to such relentless loneliness--surely she and her hubby had some pals back in New York? But with Williams, you simply must go along for the ride, and the journey through the emotional dark spaces of Mrs. Stone's life is gripping. The location shots of the glorious, decaying beauty of Rome are fabulous, as are the costumes. Extras include a featurette, Mrs. Stone: Looking for Love in All the Dark Corners. --A.T. Hurley

It wasn’t always called "The Wedding Album," but over the years, Duran Duran’s self-titled 1993 album has taken on the name to avoid being confused with their 1981 debut (also self-titled). Whatever you want to call it,  you may be surprised (if you’re just a casual Duran Duran fan or have never heard of them at all) to discover that it’s one of the group’s deepest and most emotionally appealing collection of songs.

The incredibly sultry and downright despondent "Come Undone" emerges halfway through as the stand-out track that, along with "Ordinary World," makes you feel pretty good about feeling so sad. And the hypnotic sounds of "Love Voodoo" and "UMF"will have you hitting replay as you dance along to your CD player.

As a longtime Duran Duran fan, I have always loved the more well-known albums "Rio" and "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" (what devoted DD fan could ever deny loving "The Reflex" or "Union of the Snake"?) But as a lover of great music that is timeless and not limited to just the 80s, I can’t help but praise the melancholy madness of  this particular wedding.

It's been a while since I've seen a really good horror movie and the ones I have seen are so bad and just plain disgusting that I think I've been turned off the genre forever...The rise of  "torture porn" (and maybe it's just me who thinks this, but hopefully not) has not been a good thing. The poster for one of the "Saw" movies is probably the least threatening-looking and tamest of the lot...the ones for both "Hostel" films being SO bad they can't even be posted here without possibly traumatizing an innocent reader.

Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the illusion of  scary, not the scary itself...gore has quickly become a replacement for what should be atmospheric and implied scares.  Last year I tried to watch both "Hostel" flicks...and couldn't make it through either. The premise alone (Americans traveling to a small town in Eastern Europe where they pay for the "opportunity" to brutalize and kill kidnapped tourists) is a morally difficult one to grasp, even for those of who have long been a fan of the genre (horror, that is, not torture.)

I turned the second off at least halfway through, but not before the damage had been done...a scene with two women, one enjoying killing the other one in almost orgasmic delight (basking in her blood), made me so sick i thought i was going to vomit. There was a point in my life when I could handle some of  the "Saw" movies, but I've since grown tired of them and am not in that "dark" place anymore where I need a shocking jolt to distract me from life's problems.

For truly great cinema thrills, you can't beat something like "The Others" or "The Turn of  The Screw." I think I'm officially through with the hardcore stuff (unless, of course, there are zombies involved.)