Presenting small town life in mid-20th century Italy, Federico Fellini‘s Amarcord (1974) is tasteless, scatological and, to me, unfunny. Practically the only good thing about it is that the woman who plays the tobacco seller has an absolutely gorgeous nude bosom. Never mind the use to which it is put.

(Italian with English subtitles)

Touchy, forgetful, and psychopathic, Howard has already murdered one woman and is perhaps destined to murder another—nice Helen Gardner, the protagonist of the thriller Beware, My Lovely (1952). Helen hires Howard as a day laborer, but Howard seeks to be comforted and then oppressive, forbidding Helen to leave her house. Helen makes every imaginable move that a woman in her circumstances would make—this alone is absorbing—and Ida Lupino enacts her splendidly. She can sustain fright and is never hammy. Robert Ryan is as charming as Lupino, but a perfect Howard and so never false as a mentally disturbed culprit. Harry Howard, often a movie production designer, directed satisfactorily.

All the superficiality and pettiness and ineptitude one might expect to see behind the scenes of major pop music operations exists in the Charli XCX mockumentary, The Moment (2026). There is so much of it, though—plus little music—that the flick gets tedious. Charli XCX is mildly vulgar with her attractive body, but also droll in her confusion and exasperation. Alas, we finally witness self-pity from her as well. I believe this film was a mistake.