You missed The Last Seduction on your Criterion Neo Noir scrolling. I would highly recommend it as a modern neo-noir set in the 90s which could be part of your 90s deep dive project.
I was thinking about what you said about a quiet really place secretly being about keeping kids quiet in public and I remembered Gremlins seems to also be about children making a mess of things.
Death in Venice is a masterpiece! It's a MUST! It's in my top five of all time. I strongly recommend it, Josh! Hope you're having a great holiday weekend!
the public library is a goldmine for films that you cant find on streaming. For example, my local library system has all of Altman films where you cannot find anywhere. I just rented as many as I could and watched them all.
I watched Cassavetes' Husbands last night, pretty crazy, yet interesting realism exploration into the male psyche. The three amigos of Gazzara, Falk, and C do have a fine, chaotic chemistry. Also watching The Killing of a Chinese Bookie soon.
I think it's perfectly acceptable to review the story of a video game and not the gameplay. I would give it a go on backloggd if that's one of your interests
Being there, they made us read the book in High School I remember and never watched the film because i might have felt you couldn't do it well. I'd say a successful version is Forrest Gump. I know a lot of people really don't like FG but I happen to do. (though its been a few years now since I watched it last) An older woman friend of my mother said Death in Venice was her favorite film. I watched it many years ago and found the statement even more intriguing than before I watched it. I think I felt it was sort of a Lolita film? Through the lens of life slipping away. I might be wrong as I was pretty young then. Small list of Asian manga sports movies: :D Pinpon (2002) (only saw when it came out) Shaolin Soccer (A bit dated now) The First Slam Dunk (2022) Actually good!!
Regarding sports films I would count White Men Can't Jump, Eight Men Out, Raging Bull, The Hustler and Spring Fever among the best I've seen. Galipoli was mentioned as a partial sports movie because the 2 main characters are long distance runners.
