Melissa Kaercher

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Josie and the Pussycats

Another podcast mention that makes the website spotlight, Josie and the Pussycats is brilliant satire masked in bubblegum and bright colors. How do you turn a forgettable Saturday morning cartoon into a smart and clever movie? This is how. (It helps to have a KILLER soundtrack – it’s my go to sunny spring day playlist!) Alan Cumming and Parker Posey are brilliant and Tara Reid gives a startling great performance – the best of her career. This would be an awesome double feature with A Star Is Born.

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: To Live and Die in L.A.

Okay, I haven’t gotten into this yet on the podcast, but I am a wannabe gearhead, and I’m a sucker for a good car chase. To Live and Die in L.A. has one of the greatest car chase sequences of all time, masterfully directed by William Friedkin at the height of his powers. The movie around the car chase is pretty great, too: it’s a Secret Service vs. master counterfeiter 1980s cop drama that involves the likes of Willem Dafoe, John Turturro, Dean Stockwell, and candy-colored 1980s cinematography. What’s not to love?

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Harakiri

I spent too many years of my life being unfamiliar with this magnificent Japanese film from the 1960s, so here I am to save you from the same fate. Harakiri is a film that examines — and dissects — the Bushido code of honor, constructing a slow-burn battle of wits that ultimately erupts into the sort of bloodshed modern viewers expect from samurai movies. But Harakiri is so much more than its grueling action scenes. It’s about a ronin who turns up at a manor, asking for permission to perform ritual suicide in their courtyard. The lord of the manor, both impressed and suspicious, tries to ascertain the ronin’s real agenda. It’s a smart, fascinating movie that also has swords

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Lake Placid

We’ve mentioned this one on the podcast, so it’s time it made the website spotlight. This is the Best Giant Crocodile Film Ever. You didn’t know there was a genre called “giant crocodile films”? Well, don’t worry about it – Lake Placid has already nailed down the top spot. Watch it and you’re golden. This is a film that will have you laughing out loud, and also jumping a foot off the couch. Oliver Platt and Betty White have the diva parts, but don’t overlook the quiet comedy of Bridget Fonda and Brendan Gleeson. Eminently quotable, and a good reason to beg off swimming in any lake.