90 - Salvador

It certainly did feel like Salvador was the first attempt for Oliver Stone before Platoon, but it certainly has its merits. For one, James Woods maintains the persistent, manipulative, and foul-mouthed character that he easily brings to a lot of his characters. John Savage also makes a more courageous turn as a seasoned war photographer (and Bob Capa fan :) ).

While I am pleased to see the Canon F-1 on the cover, I have to admit that Nikon was the dominant gear at the time. John Savage even uses a rangefinder (a Leica most likely) in quite a number of scenes. I'm not sure what he meant when he said his 120 was busted...I didn't see him carrying a Rolleiflex or something....anyway ;)

89 - Mystery Train

I remember Jim mentioning in one of his documentaries how he watches foreign movies with no subtitles and from there be able to discover how good the film has been made. That was the case for how I watched the first segment of Mystery Train. Just watch the facial expressions of Masatoshi Nagase and Youki Kudoh and you can't miss the emotion or context of what they were saying, despite the language barrier. In it's own weird way, it felt like watching R2D2 and C-3PO :)

It's great to have the gang back.....with Tom Waits on the radio, Nicoletta Braschi (from Down by Law), and John Lurie's background music. It was great to watch Steve Buscemi as well....anything he does with the Coen Brothers and Jim Jarmusch just can't go wrong.

88 - Night on Earth

Back on the Jim Jarmusch track :)

Wonderful slices of life....and truly are slices of stories and it doesn't really matter where it starts. Jim is just able to keep you watching and if you watch the extras, you appreciate how he creates his films on instinct. Choosing a taxi cab as a setting, this might have been a pre-cursor to those HBO taxicab confessions series.

Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Giancarlo Esposito

I loved the episodes by Giancarlo Esposito, Armin Mueller Stahl, and of course, Roberto Benigni! I enjoyed Jim describing working with Roberto as being so easy you just have to point a camera at his face and let him do his thing :)

And Isaach De Bankolé!......I really didn't recoginze him until Jim mentions him in the extras (he was the ice cream man in Ghost Dog!)

The extras include audio clips of Jim responding to email Q&As....another welcome treat.

One last thing about Roberto......I don't think I'll look at pumpkins and sheep the same way again :)