Mr. Brown

I'd say I'm a little squeamish. Just a little.
That sort of character trait is never good if one plans to watch anything by Quentin Tarantino.
Is it just me or is there a bloody car scene in both Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs?
That both inadvertently involve Harvel Keitel?

I digress.

At any rate, I was surprised how much I enjoyed both of these films, considering I am wary of both being shot, and being covered in the blood of someone I know.

This is right before he shoots him. And I so wanted their friendship to survive.
That is all.

Hal Hartley

Is a genius. I can't believe I even understood the meaning of cinema until I saw his films.
I'm exaggerating slightly, of course.

The Unbelievable Truth (1989) is one of my favorite movies of all time.
It is unbelievably great.
It begins with Josh (played by the wonderfully tan and fantastic Robert Burke), a supposed "mass murderer", being released from prison and hitchhiking his way back to Long Island, where he lived before he went to prison. Since he is a rather good mechanic, he finds a job fixing cars for Vic Hugo (take notice of creative character name), father of the beautiful, cynical, and sassy Audry Hugo (played by the late Adrienne Shelly).

And everything after that is a wonderfully entertaining blur of dry humor and creative character development.

This movie also has a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I know.
Normally, I don't pay too much attention to Rotten Tomatoes (mostly because they like to rate Wes Anderson movies rather poorly), but I have to make an exception in this case.

After I discovered that Hal Hartley directed this, I attempted to wildly watch a few more of his films in a rather obsessive manner.

They're all this great. I can't even handle it.

Plump Bess

While I was on my vacation (Insert irritating "Spring Break <3" slang here), I got sick. I couldn't tell you what from, but it probably sprouted from eating far too much at the meals, lounging on various chairs reading anything I could get my hands on, even The Clue of the Leaning Chimney  featuring everybody's favorite sleuth, and avoiding physical activity like the plague. So, I was stranded on my foldout all day while I watched Law & Order: SVU, finished Jane Eyre and read Agatha Christie's Thirteen at Dinner, and some good ol' Nancy Drew. It was a day of mysteries.
My copy looks like this:

Reading this sparked some fond memories of sleuthing alongside homegirl Nancy.
Remarkably, Carolyn Keene's famed mystery novels provide some interesting commentary on the standards placed on women during the time of this book's publication.
This comes from the first page:
"Oh, Nancy, this road is so lonely! And here we are with all this money. It'd be awful if it were stolen!"
     Bess Marvin gripped the purse in her lap a bit more tightly and peered nervously through the windshield of the convertible.
     A dark forest flowed past the car on either side of the road. Black clouds were gathering in the night sky, and the wind whispered dismally through the swaying trees.
     The pretty, somewhat plump girl shivered slightly and sat a little closer to Nancy.
      "It's--it's almost spooky," she added in a hushed voice.
      "Cheer up, Bess," comforted the slim, golden-haired driver. "We'll soon be home."

This is despicable. Not only does she refer to Bess as "somewhat plump", but a few lines later, she describes Nancy as "slim" and "golden-haired".
I'm not saying that Bess should have ended up overcoming her fears of lonely roads and being mugged and solved the mystery, but couldn't Bess have had at least one redeemable quality? There is a time later along in the plot after the pair have survived the lonely road where, at a birthday party, Bess whispers to Nancy about being excited about the cake she sees across the room. I mean, come on. She even has a name that reminds me of cows.
Now, to be fair, this book was published in 1949. Harry S. Truman was in office and the first Volkswagen Beetle was delivered to the U.S. on January 17. So, it was a while ago.

I'm still a little peeved.