VHS and Betamax You Have Recently Rented

[SaitoRyo]

CrissCross (1992)

I love discovering long-forgotten films like this, which is a small-town coming-of-age drama from the early 90s.

Goldie Hawn and her 12-year-old son are trying to rebuild their life in Key West in the late 60s after Vietnam vet husband/father (Keith Carradine) has a breakdown and abruptly leaves them. Mother and son start doing things they know they shouldn't be doing (and don't want to do) in order to make enough money to buy a small house and get to the point that they don't both have to work several jobs just to make ends meet.

I liked this. It's not going to change your world or anything, but it has a decent, character-driven story and the sixties Key West setting is just lovely to watch on film. Also, the actor who plays the kid (David Arnott) gives a tremendous one-shot performance. Directed by noted cinematographer Christopher Menges.

[Carbomb]

Where did you watch it? I'd be interested in seeing this.

[SaitoRyo]

4 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Where did you watch it? I'd be interested in seeing this.

ok.ru! There are a few lower-quality versions on there, but I found one that was 720p. Can't imagine you'd have much luck finding it on other streaming services, unless it's available to buy/rent on Prime Video. 

[wordsfromlee]

18 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Where did you watch it? I'd be interested in seeing this.

It's on Amazon Prime

[theringmaster]

On 7/9/2025 at 10:03 AM, BomberPat said:

High Fidelity

25th anniversary screening, with live Q&A with Nick Hornby and Stephen Frears. 

First time watching it in years, and if anything I loved it even more than I did the first few times. Everything is just pitch-perfect. Hornby made a point that, for all his concerns about them moving the setting from London to Chicago, if this had been made as an indie British film it would never have worked because they wouldn't have had the budget to do the soundtrack right, so it wouldn't have felt true to itself, and it's hard to argue - the record shop and Rob's flat feel so genuinely lived in and well-observed, and the choice of music, and the records and posters used in the set design, go a long way there.

Mostly, though, the emotional arc of the story just resonates with me a lot more now than when I last watched it. I think this is a rare thing, in a romance film that rewards rewatching at different stages in your life. As a music-obsessed teenager when I first saw it - and one who worked in a record shop, no less! - and with no real sense of how healthy relationships worked yet, I had a lot more sympathy for Rob in the first half of the film at his most tragic, with all the "it's not what you're like, it's what you like" stuff, and people building their personalities around the stuff they're into as if that's the most important thing. This time around, it had never been clearer what an absolutely tragic, pathetic prick Rob is for most of the film, but in a way that makes you root for him to get better and figure it out, and then the resolution being that relationships are just things you have to work at and put some effort into rather than something to fix you and make everything right, is a much more satisfying ending in my late 30s than it was in my teens and twenties. 

There's a point in the film that always just felt like background colour, but is actually really close to the heart of it, when Dick starts dating a girl he meets in the shop. Because in their first interaction, he's recommending her stuff to listen to based on what she already likes. Earlier in the film, Dick's talking about making a tape for Rob, and Rob's not interested. But the point there is that while they're all elitist muso snobs, Dick isn't gatekeeping, he actually wants to share his knowledge so that more people can enjoy what he's into, and his starting point with his girlfriend is to build on her tastes. Whereas when Rob first meets Laura, he offers to make her a mixtape based on her liking one song that he's played.

I've used the analogy of the end of this film many times in the last couple of years, that Rob learns that the art of making a good mixtape should be in compiling a list of songs that they will like, rather than a bunch of stuff you want them to like. I've used it on podcasts, for the question of "what match would you recommend to someone who's never watched wrestling before?" - well, it depends on the person, and what their tastes are, and where they're coming from, so there's no single right answer; if you think there is, then all you're doing is projecting your tastes on to someone else.

This is a great write up, makes me want to watch it again, been at least 2 years since i last rewatched! I agree as you get older, you start seeing Rob in a different (and more negative light).

Out of interest did you see the new tv version that came out a few years back? I thought it was great modern update.

[BomberPat]

1 hour ago, theringmaster said:

Out of interest did you see the new tv version that came out a few years back? I thought it was great modern update.

I didn't, and I had completely forgotten it happened. I need to get around to it.

In the Q&A, Nick Hornby was asked about the timing of writing it, as it inadvertently ended up being a bit of an end of an era - independent record shops were on their way out, and within a couple of years someone in Rob's position of trying to track down and reconnect with old exes would have just been stalking them on social media - and he basically said that it worked out okay in the modern remake, so it wasn't really a concern. 

He also said that High Fidelity was the only book he's ever considered writing a sequel of, and how the stumbling block for about fifteen years was always that he couldn't figure out what Rob would be doing for a living now - but now he'd just be back to running a hipster record shop.

[SuperBacon]

9 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

He also said that High Fidelity was the only book he's ever considered writing a sequel of,

Not a sequel but slight SPOILER ALERT Dick does turn up in a very brief cameo in another Hornby book. I genuinely can't remember which one though.

I really enjoyed the TV version. Was perfectly pitched and also, Zoe Kravitz. 

[Mr_Danger]

Dick braining Ray with the air con unit is something that always just cracks me up and I have to watch it a few times to get it out of my system.

[FLips]

Sonic The Hedgehog 3

Three films in and the series remains to be just "good" which before this and Mario was almost a badge of honour for videogame films. This one may the best of the lot of them, with Carrey gobbling the scenery as two different Robotniks, and Keanu Reeves is actually perfect as a moany gloomy hedgehog, who'd have guessed?
There's yet more nods to the games and they're shockingly accurate to the origins for Shadow (they even gave him a gun!) but as with the other two they're leaving a lot of content on the table for fans of the games when it comes to locations and music.
The Mario films (both of them) are the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to showing how good a film is when you put the game into the real world, and how good the film is when you go all-in on the world. Sonic really needs to get out the former and into the latter.

The mid-credits scene with

Spoiler

Amy and Metal Sonic

combined with other happenings in the film should hopefully be the push it needs to scrap all the pointless humans off and just go fully in on Sonic, but we'll see. 

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

Red Riding 1974 and 1980

Based on the novels by David Peace 

All three films have recently been added to Netflix, not seen them for years and very much worth a watch with a great cast.

1980 is probably my favourite of the two as a lot of it follows the Yorkshire Ripper case and how certain things were covered up with the arrest and charging of Sutcliffe.

Got the third one to watch and will watch it later in the week 

[Onyx2]

On 7/20/2025 at 10:15 AM, Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz said:

Red Riding 1974 and 1980

Based on the novels by David Peace 

All three films have recently been added to Netflix, not seen them for years and very much worth a watch with a great cast.

1980 is probably my favourite of the two as a lot of it follows the Yorkshire Ripper case and how certain things were covered up with the arrest and charging of Sutcliffe.

Got the third one to watch and will watch it later in the week 

I remember this being raved about at the time but I missed it so thought I'd give it a go. I found it so dull. 

Andrew Garfield enters a scene. Asks a question in yo-yo Yorkshire accent. Has sex or fantasises about sex. Gets beaten up. Repeat for 100 minutes. 

I didn't care at all about the characters (of which there were far too many) and I don't feel like any progress was made by the end. Didn't get the hype at all and certainly don't want to watch the rest. 

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

16 hours ago, Onyx2 said:

I remember this being raved about at the time but I missed it so thought I'd give it a go. I found it so dull. 

Andrew Garfield enters a scene. Asks a question in yo-yo Yorkshire accent. Has sex or fantasises about sex. Gets beaten up. Repeat for 100 minutes. 

I didn't care at all about the characters (of which there were far too many) and I don't feel like any progress was made by the end. Didn't get the hype at all and certainly don't want to watch the rest. 

To be honest, I think the first one (from memory as not got round to the third one yet) is certainly the weakest one

[wordsfromlee]

Companion was decent. I probably would have enjoyed it more if one of the big reveals wasn't spoiled in the fucking poster!

[Merzbow]

The initial trailers didn't show any of that stuff but the second round of promotion... ugh, spoilt everything.

I don't think I would have liked the film as much if it wasn't the same two leads, Sophie and Jack were great together.

[Devon Malcolm]

21 hours ago, Onyx2 said:

I remember this being raved about at the time but I missed it so thought I'd give it a go. I found it so dull. 

Andrew Garfield enters a scene. Asks a question in yo-yo Yorkshire accent. Has sex or fantasises about sex. Gets beaten up. Repeat for 100 minutes. 

I didn't care at all about the characters (of which there were far too many) and I don't feel like any progress was made by the end. Didn't get the hype at all and certainly don't want to watch the rest. 

I didn't like it either. I thought all three parts were crap. Absolutely baffled as to why it was so highly regarded.