Anand (1971)

Most Indian movies I've seen are from this century, if only because the IMDb top 250 skews recent. But IMDb also lists an Indian top 250, where this is #1. Not sure how that works when other Indian features appear on the overall top 250 and Anand doesn't, but I figured on giving it a try.

Oncologist Bhaskar makes a point to treat people who otherwise can't afford it. Making what he deems too little progress, he feels discouraged. His comrade Kulkarni also treats the poor, except by using payment from rich hypochondriacs. Then the title character turns up in their lives and checks in for hospice care. Anand has the kind of case that normally wouldn't help Bhaskar feel better: an incurable cancer due to kill within half a year. But Anand doesn't let that stop him from trying to be the life of the party, if you will.

Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes (2013)

The entire Department Q trilogy was on a list of favorite Netflix screening options. I took care to start with the first, not The Absent One (2014) or A Conspiracy of Faith (2016). They all have similar IMDb scores. Perhaps I should have noted that their Rotten Tomatoes scores get progressively much higher.

Somewhere in Denmark, impulsive policeman Carl has botched a raid, leaving his partners out of commission and himself needing months of recovery. Afterward, no one else on the force wants to work with him, so the chief invents a Department Q, populated by Carl and assistant Assad, for sorting files of closed cases. But before long, Carl gets suspicious about a woman's reported suicide: Why do that on a cruise with her heavily brain-damaged brother? He and Assad investigate further, taking a trip to Sweden, despite the chief's consternation. As you've no doubt predicted, they're right.

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Confession: I skipped a review of the last western I watched, Fort Apache. It had been too soon after El Dorado, and while it was more distinctive in plot and possibly better overall, I just couldn't muster the motivation to write about it. Well, four months is plenty of time to get back in the mood, this time with a feature inherently more different, coming from the '70s.

Under the direction of mainstay Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford plays a mountain man in the Rockies. His story starts out as possibly the most episodic western I've seen, but patterns emerge. For all the loneliness of his lifestyle, certain people show up either for an extended period or repeatedly, as if for "bookends." Others die quickly, because there is a lot of tension on the frontier, particularly involving Crows. His victories allow him to pass into legend (based loosely on a real legend recorded in a few books).

Baby Doll (1956)

I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to see a Tennessee Williams story about a young woman regarded as immature if not babyish. When I learned that it was controversial, I expected something along the lines of Lolita. Fortunately, I soon confirmed that the title character (Carroll Baker), who never uses her real first name, married as a virgin at 18 -- less than half the apparent age of her husband, Archie Lee Meighan (Karl Malden), but that wasn't the scandal.

The Meighans have had a deal not to do something unspecified until her upcoming 20th birthday; from his eagerness, it's not hard to guess what. Understandably, she doesn't share his eagerness, not least because he hasn't been the great businessman she was led to believe. In desperation for success, Archie secretly sabotages the industry of rival Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach) and then tries to talk him into a merger, leaving Baby Doll to entertain him for a while. Things get mighty suggestive between her and Vacarro, tho it's not the conquest he chiefly has in mind....

Carlito's Way (1993)

Ages ago, I made a curious discovery: I loved The Godfather but had trouble liking popular movies that resembled it -- even its Part II. When I read the summary of CW, I thought it sounded too close to Part III. Still, I'd had pretty good luck with Brian De Palma, so I gave it a try.

Those who have read the Edwin Torres book by the same title should note that this is actually based more on the literary sequel, After Hours. Here, in 1975, Carlito (Al Pacino) has just finished 5 years in prison but feels great, because he was set to serve another 25 until his friend and lawyer David (Sean Penn) showed that the prosecutor had used illegal evidence. He insists that his days as a Spanish Harlem drug lord are over; he aims to run a decent night club and earn enough money to move to the Caribbean, preferably with his on-and-off girlfriend Gail (Penelope Ann Miller). But while the scene has changed, it's never easy to stay out of trouble when nobody expects you to, and he doesn't feel ready to break away from some crooked friends....

The Beguiled (2017)

When I accepted the Meetup invitation to see this, I didn't know that it was a remake -- or rather, as the director insisted, a second cinematic adaptation of a book. Some of the older group members had seen the Clint Eastwood version and found it haunting, so there was a bit to live up to. For my part, I wanted to see a promising Sofia Coppola film for the first time since Lost in Translation.

Cpl. John McBurnie (Colin Farrell), a Union deserter with a fresh leg wound, finds reluctant hospitality at a Confederate girl school with headmistress Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman), teacher Edwina Murrow (Kirsten Dunst), and five students (of whom Elle Fanning plays the probable eldest). Despite his official enemy status, he garners the affectionate interest of eventually all seven ladies. Martha figures on sending him away upon recovery, but when he gets well enough to tend the neglected garden, it becomes more tempting to let him stay. Alas, his intentions are not all innocent, let alone harmless in effect to others or himself.

The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

I wasn't sure I'd ever watch a movie about a pornographer, no matter how esteemed it is. The fact that Miloš Forman directed and thought it his best work (above One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus?!) upped my curiosity.

The first scene, depicting prepubescent Larry and his brother Jimmy as rural Kentucky moonshine vendors in 1952, feels out of place with the rest. I guess the point was to show their long-time dark entrepreneurial partnership and Larry's attitude problem. From there, the film skips to their ownership of a failing strip club (by which time they're played by Woody and Brett Harrelson, respectively), which they try to remedy with ads that become the basis for Hustler magazine. The next several years see Larry in multiple court cases (not all about porn) and, yes, worse troubles.

Sing Street (2016)

When I learned that this was an Irish movie about amateur music, I figured my mom would love it, as she loved Once and The Commitments. The former didn't do much for me; the latter I liked but not as much as she did. Perhaps I should have waited and watched SS with her, but I felt like streaming something popular and less than two hours long.

In the mid-'80s, when music videos are big and the economy of Dublin isn't, 15-year-old Conor gets transferred to a cheaper school, Synge Street CBS, with plenty of bad boys (most notably physical bully Barry) and a harsh principal, Brother Baxter. He copes by assembling a rock band of tolerable students with various skill levels, making himself the lead singer and secondary guitarist. This offers the bonus of drawing the interest of a 16-year-old aspiring model, Raphina, who becomes the highlight of their homemade videos and, of course, Conor's love interest, however shakily.

My Life as a Zucchini (2016)

I had saved this for last among the 2016 Academy Best Animated Feature nominees, not just because it wasn't immediately available but because I didn't think it looked good. What a weirdly colored protagonist. Fortunately, the appearances are easier to take once you see them in (stop) motion. Besides, I don't let unrealistic art prevent my viewings.

Not having read the book, I still don't know why nine-year-old Icare's mother nicknamed him "Zucchini" (or, without dubbing over the French, "Courgette," which adds to the strangeness by sounding more feminine than he is). Regardless, after she dies, he insists on retaining the nickname no matter how others react to it. He's big on mementos of her and his estranged father, loutish as they appear to have been. But in his life at the orphanage, he finds importance in things not left in the past, not least the new pretty girl, Camille....