Movie review - "The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart" (1970) **

 This film is wild. Don Johnson was plucked off the stage to star as a fboi college student rich enough to have his own apartment who wants to be a film director and sleeps around. He has sexual fantasies but real life is pretty good - he gets virginal Dianne Hull into bed, in part by really heavy-ing her in a rapey way, then sleeps with her chubby friend Holly Near via using the filmmaking dodge, and hooks up with a hippy Linda Gillen and the beautifuul Victoria Racimo but is still hung up on Hull.

There's some nudity, four letter words, and plenty of sex but the public didn't like it.  I wonder if this was meant to be a set in the queer world? Maybe life was like this. There's no real characters to hook into. Michael Greer comes off best as Johnson's friend.

There's a Hollywood mantra that characters need to be good at their jobs. If Johnson's character was into some decent cause like the anti war movement or was at least a decent filmmaker it would help. 

Movie review - "Year of the Gun" (1992) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Andrew McCarthy is an amiable leading man who could've had a longer stint as a semi-star. He's not a real star - Sharon Stone is. It's bizarre this film was made - an account of an American in 1970s Italy dealing with the Red Brigade. John Frankenheimer wanted it shot in black and white which would have made it more interesting. He also wanted a different leading man

Valerie Golino is very good and often nude as McCarthy's girlfriend.  They should have cast an Italian rather than John Pankow as an Italian lecturer.

It never answers the question why do we care. McCarthy sleeps with Golino, writes a novel, the Red Brigade think he's got inside information, kidnap him, but let him go. He's very passive. At least Stone has a proper job, taking photos etc

Sex scenes between McCarthy and Golino quite hot though him and Stone feels awkward. 

Maybe this would've worked if from Stone's point of view. 

Book ereview - "Montgomery Clift: A Biography” by Patricia Bosworth

 Excellent deep dive on Clift's life and careers. So many people on the record  - lovers, friends. Often harrowing reading. Everyone says Clift was smart, brilliant, funny. But also weak, addictive, whiny, annoying. Given great advantages that he threw away, kept blaming other people (his mother, Hollywood).

Play review - "Incident at Vichy" by Arthur Miller (1964)

 Excellent play about a group of men held by the Germans in Vichy France. Miller at his best - a lot of angst and argument. Builds to a memorable end.

Theatre review - "Merry Wives of Windsor" by William Shakespeare

 Saw this in Exeter. The best actor played Falstaff. The play really should be about the women Flastaff is a supporting character. Feels very quickly written

Theatre review - "Letter to Brezhnev" (2026)

 The film on stage basically. Needed more of a reason to make it. Like songs, or tell the story of the making of the film (its gay writer picking up Russians and passing a script to an heiress passed out on his couch whose brother financed it). Still entertaining to watch. The lead girls were great.

Movie review - "Letter to Brezhnev" (1985) ***

 Sweet, simple, fantastic idea, lots of nightclub scenes, from the heart. You want to see what happens when she goes to Russian. Acting is fine - the girls have authenticity, if the guys are putting on accents that's understandable and the film's not really about them.