Movie Diary 3/27/2024

All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976). A bracing movie to re-visit any time, but now? Etc. etc. We’ll be talking about this one online, Saturday March 30 at 2 pm Pacific Time, as part of “Election Year: Politics on Film,” for Scarecrow Academy. It’s free, so why not sign up here?

The 39 Steps and The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935/34). Between teaching film history class and doing some palate-cleansing, here you go.

The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel Coen, 1994). A second viewing, 30 years after the first, and it did not convince me. Everything is pushed a little too much for me, I suppose. Stray thought: Paul Newman’s curiously quiet performance amid all the stylized patter is sort of interestingly against the grain, but surely the part might’ve benefited from the jittery energy of Jack Lemmon, whose identification with the late-Eisenhower-era setting is strong.